Mobile home fire kills three

RENO -- A fire tore through a Reno mobile home, killing two people in the home and a neighbor who tried to rescue them, authorities said.

Washoe County Deputy Coroner Steve Finnell said that the names of the victims will not be released until after autopsies are performed today.

He said the two victims inside the home were thought to be a married couple.

"It appears that a neighbor made entry into the home to alert the people inside," Fire Department spokesman Steve Frady said, adding no other details were available.

"It's tragic anytime you have a fire death, and certainly our sympathies go out to the families," he said.

The home at the Skyline Mobile Home Park in north Reno was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived late Saturday night, Frady said.

He said the blaze spread to an unoccupied, next-door mobile home, which also was on fire when crews arrived.

The blazes destroyed both homes, damaged two vehicles and touched off a small brush fire that was quickly extinguished.

"The fact we had one (home) fully involved and the other pretty well-involved on arrival tells you the fire had a good head start," Frady said. "It was a very intense fire, and in some areas the fire burned through the floors of the homes."

Two firefighters suffered minor injuries. One suffered steam burns, and the other fell on a nail.

The cause of the 9:30 p.m. fire is under investigation.

About 35 firefighters responded to the three-alarm blaze.

In another deadly Reno blaze, 12 people died of asphyxiation and 31 were injured in an October 2006 fire at the city's Mizpah Hotel, an 84-year-old building without sprinklers where rooms rented for $150 a week.

Valerie Moore pleaded guilty to the deaths in the city's deadliest fire and was sentenced in March to 12 consecutive life prison terms.